Saturday, September 10, 2011

Hello from beautiful Carmel-by-the-Sea, California! Michele and I are here to tour a couple family farms as guests of knowacaliforniafarmer.com. Hopefully, I’ll have some photos and more info to share when I return to San Francisco on Sunday evening, but in the meantime I wanted to post this experimental chicken satay burger video.

I’ve been thinking about how to do a chicken burger using some of the same flavors found in Thai-style chicken satay, and this was my first attempt. I thought it was pretty good, and benefited from some seasoning adjustments, as you’ll hear. I think the concept is solid, but I’ll continue to try and perfect the execution.

This is one of those videos where I especially hope some are inspired to take the idea and run with it. Then, come back and share your incredible success with the rest of us. This is a fun jumping off point in regards to doing burgers inspired by other classic dishes. I can’t wait to see what you come up with. Enjoy!

For the burger (4):

1 pound ground chicken

1 1/2 tbsp coconut milk

1/2 tsp cumin

1/4 tsp turmeric

1 tsp sambal chili sauce

1 tbsp bread crumbs

2 tsp soy sauce

3 cloves minced garlic

pinch of cayenne

For the peanut sauce:

Peanut butter thinned with a squeeze of lime, seasoned with more sambal or hot pepper

If I can weigh in on the nationalist argument, I imagine Singapore when I think satay! Chef can you think of a way to incorporate the flavor of lemon grass in this? Do you think fine grating would work or still be too woody?

You can't do satay without lemongrass! I didn't know a satay platter is served with carrots at your end. Here (Singapore) we eat it with the satay sauce, raw cucumber, onions and ketupat (compressed cooked rice).

Chef, you got me thinking about creating a burger inspired by a classic dish. How about the rather obvious "Thanksgiving Burger"? Incorporate a little savory sage bread stuffing into the ground turkey, moisten with a splash of brown gravy, and top with the traditional cranberry sauce condiment (mixed with mayo to form a creamy spread, perhaps?) You can find the equivalent in certain delis using sliced turkey breast, so why not make it into a burger?

Made this yesterday. Sadly the one I sent out to buy minced chicken came back with the wrong kind of minced meat but it was oooooh so tasty anyway. I spiced it up like you said on the video and it was great! Being Norwegian and not too used to spicy food (yes - that's my excuse for being a chicken. My sis and dad loved it all spiced up though ;p)I had some sour cream on the side so I didn't die ^^

Hey Chef John...........made the burgers tonight, they were delicious. I doubled almost all the spices and it was perfect for my taste. I used this ring I have for cutting out round raw pastry dough, not sure what it is called, but I put in it the skillet and then filled it with the chicken mixture, patted it down, removed the ring and went on and made the other patties. It made nice symmetrical patties. I will make this again for sure.

Ohhhhh, I forgot to mention (after reading one of the above posts), I also added a Lemongrass paste that I am finding in the stores here in Seattle. About a tablespoon, I think. I figured it couldn't hurt.

This was really good ... burger was moist and the faint greenish tint disguised easily by grill marks and the slaw topping.

One member of the group asked for sour cream to put on her bun ... I didn't have any, but I did have some homemade creme fraiche; which I gave her. It's going way off the original, but I tried a dab of it on a bite of my burger. (I would be rude not to try it when your guest has introduced an new idea, right?)I liked it much better without.

I just wanted to add, the next day, after sitting in the fridge all night, I fried up the last two burgers and the flavors had really developed and were enhanced by that night in the fridge. I think next time I might make them a day ahead and let it sit over night in the fridge for maximum flavor enhancement. Yumm.

Dear Chef Johni'v been following u'r blog and YouTube 4 sometime now - trying stuff here and there - always with great pleasure...but this time i had to let u know... though i didn't try it exactly as u (as i didn't have any peanut butter, and i already did a few times - sesame satay, i made the sauce and added it to the grounded meat - which was not chicken by the way....)any way i just wanted to say - that was a great idea to try out and it was awesome and delicious so thank u and keep on coming with great fresh ideas...thank u.

I made these about a week or so ago and they were awesome! I did make a few changes, some intentional and some not.

I added a few dashes more of each spice as you said, and it was perfect.

I forgot the fish sauce all together even after I bought some since we had run out, oops.

I used turkey instead of chicken because I was lazy and waited until the day of to look for it.

All in all, I will be making these again very soon. Everyone seemed a little skeptical at first, but I know they all enjoyed them since they all went back for seconds. The only downside was the almost whole can of leftover coconut milk, but it ended well because it just forced us to make some coconut milk curry the next day :-).

Thanks for the idea, and I hope to get the chance to keep trying your dishes.